Nielsen Will Now Use Your Facebook Chatter for TV Ratings

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Nielsen Will Now Use Your Facebook Chatter for TV Ratings

Facebook is always watching what you post, and now the company will be sharing some of that data with the ratings gurus at Nielsen.

The company announced today that it will be expanding its offerings to include Facebook conversations as part of what it's calling "social content ratings." Nielsen has tracked conversations on Twitter for the past three years as another barometer of interest in TV shows; now it's adding Facebook conversations to the mix and eventually plans to include Instagram, as well.

But the new system won't only be relying on data from conversations you've elected to share publicly; Nielsen will also be using what it describes as aggregated, anonymous data from private conversations, as well.

"Every day, television fans from around the world use Facebook to talk about the shows and stars they love with the people that matter most to them," Nick Grudin, Facebook's director of media partnerships, says. Now those conversations will be counted in determining which shows really do have our attention.